Search

Oddly enough, I thought of painting this scene after Mr. Alexandra proudly told me how his compost piles are steaming hot right now and he’s feeling as if he’s finally getting the right mixture of green matter and brown matter to cook our leftover banana peels and kale stems to rich, delicious earth. And also after seeing this picture of a rug by Wassily Kandinsky (Horizontales)

I liked the description about how “it is a masterpiece of Abstract Expressionism. Various cryptic symbols float across a landscape of irregular horizontal bands in a dynamic interplay of form and vibrant color. We can make out the shapes of animals – a dog and snake, and perhaps a ladder. But the effect here is deliberate ambiguity in a striped background suggesting infinite space.”

Man, those art history majors know how to describe things. I don’t think worms digging around in the dirt is quite as mysterious. Well, maybe it suggests infinite earth. Or regeneration. Or some steaming hot compost just ready to nourish hungry young plants and thereby, the infinity of life. Ah, nurturing! Ah, possibilities! Ah, salad!